Kazakhstan&#8217;s investment in crypto assets could bolster its digital economy, 
potentially positioning it as a regional leader in crypto infrastructure.
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Kazakhstan eyes up to $700 million investment in crypto assets and firms

Culper Research disclosed a short position in ether and ETH-linked securities 
on Thursday, arguing that Ethereum’s post-upgrade economics have deteriorated 
enough to put sustained downside pressure on the token. The firm pointed 
directly at Ethereum’s December 2025 Fusaka upgrade, and at Vitalik Buterin’s 
recent sales, as evidence that “ETH is going lower.” “NEW: We are short Ether 
ETH, and ETH-linked securities, incl. BMNR,” Culper wrote on X. “We think ETH 
tokenomics are impaired following the December 2025 Fusaka upgrade. Vitalik 
knows it and is selling, while ETH’s most ardent bull, Tom Lee, is throwing 
good money after bad.” Why Culper Is Shorting Ethereum Culper’s core claim is 
that Fusaka’s L1 scaling changes altered Ethereum’s demand-fee dynamic more 
dramatically than expected. The firm pointed to a gas limit increase “45 to 
60M” that it said was intended to scale Ethereum’s base layer, alongside 
estimates that “Vitalik and PTG” believed fees would drop 10% to 30%. Culper 
contends the realized outcome was far more severe: “In reality, gas fees fell 
~90%,” it wrote, adding that Ethereum’s leadership and validators 
“miscalculated L1 demand elasticity by 3-9x based on outdated math (pre- 
EIP-1559 and pre-L2s).” Related Reading: Ethereum Price Corrects Gains, Drifts 
Toward Key Support Zone That fee compression matters, Culper argues, because 
it ripples into validator economics and staking incentives. “Further, the gas- 
limit increase killed $ETH validators, who are now seeing 40-50% lower tips 
per gas,” Culper wrote, claiming that lower yields reduce demand for staking 
and “high-value activity,” undermining the institutional adoption narrative. 
“The flywheel is now running in reverse.” The thread frames Tom Lee and BMNR 
as a prominent counterweight in the ETH bull camp, then attempts to dismantle 
his post-upgrade read-through. Culper said Lee has defended ether by claiming: 
“ETH is not in a death spiral because utility is going up.” According to 
Culper, Lee cited spikes in active addresses and transaction counts after 
Fusaka as evidence of “strengthening fundamentals” and institutional adoption. 
Culper’s rebuttal is blunt and largely definitional: “By Lee’s own logic, if 
ETH activity does NOT reflect increased utility and strengthening 
fundamentals, then $ETH would be in a death spiral,” it wrote. “Our research 
says this is exactly what’s happening.” Related Reading: Scaling Ethereum For 
Mainstream: Robinhood’s Head Of Crypto Lays Out The Vision To explain the 
activity surge, Culper said its analysis of on-chain data from January 2025 
through February 2026 suggests much of the growth was not organic usage, but a 
wave of low-value address poisoning and wallet dusting enabled by cheaper 
blockspace. “Post-Fusaka: 95% of growth in new wallets is explained by newly- 
created ‘dusting’ wallets,” Culper wrote, adding that poisoning attacks have 
“more than 3x’ed,” that poisoning explains “&gt;50% of $ETH transaction growth,” 
and that it now constitutes “22.5% of all ETH transactions.” Culper said it 
validated the phenomenon firsthand, claiming it set up two new wallets, 
transferred between them, and was targeted by poisoning attacks “within 5 
minutes,” while asserting that poisoning losses are “already pacing &gt;8x higher 
than pre-Fusaka.” Vitalik Is Selling The firm also tried to tie its tokenomics 
thesis to Buterin’s recent sales activity, portraying it as informed selling 
rather than routine treasury management. “This is why, we think, Vitalik is 
selling ETH hand over fist. On January 30, Vitalik pre-announced he’d sell 
16,384 ETH to fund the Foundation’s ‘austerity period.’ Since then, he’s sold 
over 19,300 ETH and counting,” Culper wrote. “He knows what Tom Lee doesn’t: 
ETH tokenomics are broken.” Culper closed by broadening the bear case into a 
competition story, claiming ether is losing share to Solana and to Ethereum’s 
own L2s, and likening ETH’s current position to incumbents that led early eras 
before being displaced. At press time, ETH traded at $2,080. Featured image 
created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Culper Shorts Ethereum, Says Buterin Selling Signals More Pain Ahead

US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $228 million in outflows Thursday, ending a three-day 
inflow streak, while Solana ETFs posted their first losses since February.

Bitcoin relief rally hits wall as spot ETFs log $228M in outflows

Bitcoin exchange withdrawals spiked to more than $2 billion of BTC on 
Wednesday, with analysis eyeing a potential major spot buy.

Bitcoin ‘anomalous’ outflow sees 32K BTC leave exchanges in a single day

New York users now gain access to Strike’s Bitcoin brokerage, recurring buys 
and paycheck-to-Bitcoin services after the NYDFS licensing approvals.

Cryptocurrency price in KWD